


Spirit Batteries

by Destiny_Smasher



Category: Dame Daffodil, The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Superpowers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-13
Updated: 2018-07-13
Packaged: 2019-06-09 15:47:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15270849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Destiny_Smasher/pseuds/Destiny_Smasher
Summary: Giftfic commissioned as a present for Sakura-Rose12, crossing over her original webcomic, Dame Daffodil, with Captain Spirit.





	Spirit Batteries

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: This is a giftfic commission from Twitter user @Porecomesis for Hayley 'Sakura-Rose12' as a birthday gift! It is strongly recommended you have read her webcomic Dame Daffodil as well as played the FREE Life is Strange episode The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit. (I take a major liberty from the vague ending of the episode to make this fic work)
> 
> Thanks so much for giving this story a try!
> 
> You can check out this blog post if you want to know what stuff can help support my work.  
>  https://destiny-smasher.tumblr.com/post/184754205794/support
> 
> Thank you for all of your support, especially taking the time to read this!

_The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is a free downloadable side story in the Life is Strange Universe._  
  
_Dame Daffodil is an[original webcomic](http://damedaffodil.tumblr.com/post/118751116901/dreaming-big)._

 _**It's strongly recommended you have experienced both before reading this short story.** _  


_If you'd like to commission me to write for you, feel free to send me a message! No budget is too small, we can always make something work!_

 

~~~

"You got 'em?!”  
  
Her arms were starting to get some rope burn from how taut the whips were around them.  
  
“I've-” Alesea grunted out, her footing slipping slightly. She regained it. “I've got them!”  
  
She wrapped her mystical whips another loop tighter around her arms, trying her best to dig into the street curb. The black beast that they were attempting to subdue was proving to be an inconvenience. They all were, of course, but Alesea had convinced Charo – er, that is, since Lady Lily had convinced Dame Daffodil – that they ought to try striving toward safer, less destructive resolutions. While that had sounded simple enough in Alesea's head, in _practice_ it was quickly becoming _quite_ a pain, even with the two of them working together.  
  
Ales-... _Lily_ had tied the creature with her whips, using two street signs as support to keep the creature from moving – a trick she had self-taught on a football field not long ago. Daffodil had needed some time to deal with the _smaller_ creatures it had spit out.  
  
“I feel-” Daffodil zapped one. “-sorta bad-” Zapped another. “-'cause they're kinda cute.” And another.  
  
“Cute, perhaps,” Lily panted out. “but...still dangerous!”  
  
“Just like _someone_ I know!” said Daffodil with a wide grin and a wink – all the while frying another creature.  
  
Lily smirked in spite of their circumstances, her eyes rolling a little in endeared amusement.  
  
Lily's gut reaction had been to gather these small beings up rather than outright destroying them – but they had no idea how these beasts functioned yet, and no real means of containing them. Where would they even _put_ them? And how would they have any assurances they could even be contained? The creatures had demonstrated unnatural speed and strength.  
  
Yet if they left so many little ones out to roam, who knew what could happen? They could grow – _multiply?_ It would be quite a mess. For the time being, it was unfortunately safer to try and attract their attention, and, well...get rid of them. Keeping their...mother? How did these things work? Well, keeping their parent creature subdued and angry seemed to be keeping the creatures nearby, hostile, yet their small size and scattered formation made them easy for Daffodil to deal with.  
  
Lily was getting tired out from keeping the larger creature pinned down, however.  
  
With a skip in her step, Daffodil taunted and clapped, drawing the remaining little ones near her, while Lily trembled and burned from the work she was doing.  
  
Daffodil airily posed, “Having a partner to help out is making this monster-fighting stuff _so_ much easier, huh?” - **zap** \- “Two flower-powered heads are better than-”  
“ _Daffodil_ ,” Lily grunted through clenched teeth, her strength starting to give out.  
  
“ _Yup!_ ” Daffodil squeaked sheepishly, focusing more deliberately on her task.  
  
As more small, growling black monsters were getting...killed? They _seemed_ like living creatures, yet...also sort of not? Alesea's mind was filled with moral problems with all of this as it was.  
  
But regardless of how _Alesea_ felt about these matters, Lady Lily was still obligated to protect human beings, first and foremost.  
  
Her feet had been using a street curb to bolster herself, but her sore legs gave way long enough for her slip a little. That slight slide, however, was exactly the moment the black, multi-legged beast had been waiting for.  
  
With Lily's whips slack for a second, the monster wriggled free, its spider-like legs rampaging at its captor in a spiteful charge.  
  
Lily stumbled backward from the disconnect, falling over. Her concentration broken, her whips' power faltered. Her heart froze for a moment as the spear-like feet of the monster punctured small craters into the pavement, heading straight for her. Its eyeless face was somehow filled with rage as its mandibles snapped.  
  
Lily re-focused her whips, trying to slash them at the beast – anything to mitigate its advance. Minimal effect, a few grazing scratches which barely slowed the monster down.  
  
“Alesea!” cried Daffodil with alarm, dashing toward the impending threat and firing off a beam – but the monster was too quick, and her attack instead cut through one of the street signs, sending it toppling over.  
  
The smaller creatures took the opportunity to swarm at Daffodil – and while most had been disposed of, enough still remained where their gnawing bites crippled the Dame to her knees to try and blast them off.  
  
“I-CHANGED-MY-MIND-THEY'RE-NOT-CUTE!!”  
  
Having scrambled to her feet, Lily had second or two to spare before the larger monster reached her. She cracked her whips at its feet, attempting to tangle them up. This somewhat succeeded, but rather than trapping the beast, it merely sent it skidding briefly before its multiple legs regained traction and cut through the whips again.  
  
Daffodil, still scraping spider-like biting from her legs, fired off another beam in a panic. This, too, missed its mark, nearly clipping Lily on the way – a gust of air pushed at her in the beam's wake.  
  
The monster lunged.  
Lily pulled her whips back in.  
But there wasn't enough time.  
  
**-snap** -  
  
Lily fell to her back.  
  
**-snap snap** -  
  
But...the creature had missed?  
  
An odd hissing. The monster was... _floating._ Right in front of Lily. Thrashing its mandibles in her direction, swiping its sharp legs every which way, yet...stationary in the air.  
  
It was pretty strange, all right.  
  
And Lily surely had not stopped its advance. But Daffodil, squashing and zapping small creatures off of her, looked just as puzzled.  
  
A weird moment of quiet fell over the the lot, and the monster even gave up its struggle.  
  
**-zap** -  
  
The beast exploded into black dust with a weak screech as Dame Daffodil finally hit her mark. The suddenness of it threw Lily off guard, another gust of air rushing past her from the destructive blow. A piece of black dust landed where the monster had just been, and a black flower quickly sprouted from its position.  
  
Daffodil was scrambling through a small batch of black critters to reach her partner.  
  
“You OK?!” Charo cried out, tripping up a bit on the beasties. “ _Cut it-!”_ she growled at them, shaking them off. “Alesea?!”  
  
“I-I'm all right,” Alesea replied, baffled at what had just happened. “How did you _do_ that?” she asked, pulling her whips back in and ready to squash some more...'bugs?'  
  
“Do what?” Daffodil panted, kicking a couple more off of her feet. She zapped one. “Couldn't hit it until you got it to stop moving. Good stuff!”  
  
“I didn't...-” Lily noticed how tuckered out Daffodil was, but there were still maybe ten or so of the annoying pests to deal with. The poor girl's legs were all...nibbled. Yikes. Was going to be fun explaining _that_ one to Sel...An impromptu hiking trip gone wrong? Or maybe she'd...fallen on her bike? Charo...didn't have a bike. Or maybe-?  
  
Alesea then realized that the remaining monsters were... _also_ floating, now. Slowly being shoved together into a black, fuzzy ball.  
  
“Whoa,” Daffodil murmured in awe. “You get a new power _already_? _¡Guauu~!_ ” She was pressing her wrists to her cheeks, glowing a smile of admiration at Lily, who...wasn't doing anything.  
  
“I-...It's not...-” Lily gestured a confused hand at the blob of creatures, writhing around one another and emitting their strange hissing squeaks.  
  
“My Lady's the _best_ ,” Charo smugly cited, snapping a finger at Alesea with one hand, while zapping the beasties to dust with the other. “Teamwork makes the dreamw-”  
“Why do you keep doing that?”  
  
Lily and Daffodil both froze at this, spoken from somewhere to their side.  
  
There was...a _boy_ there, emerging from a payphone booth, his hand extended toward them. He sighed, letting his hand drop.  
  
He was...dressed in spray-painted cardboard, a cape, and a face-painted mask of blue. Couldn't have been much older than ten, if even that.  
  
As he approached them, he dejectedly pointed out, “Heroes aren't s'pposed to kill people...”  
  
Lily felt her face flush at this, and she glanced at Daffodil nervously.  
  
“Th-Those weren't _people_ ,” Daffodil sheepishly defended. Slamming her fists on her hips, she said with a prim nod, “Those were _monsters._ We-...We're _saving_ people.”  
  
“But aren't you _super_ heroes?” the boy asked. “I thought you don't kill - that's what makes you super.”  
  
The color probably drained from the heroines' faces as they offered squeamish smiles at that naive idea.

  
“We don't...hurt _people_ ,” Daffodil pointed out, with a shrug. _A shrug??_ Not exactly convincing...  
  
“We don't _want_ to hurt _anyone_ ,” Lily explained.  
  
Traffic was starting to pile up a bit and police sirens could be heard approaching from the distance.  
  
Admirers of the flower-blazoned heroes were cautiously making their approach, phone camera snapping and all.  
  
Dame Daffodil went about greeting her enthusiastic fans and explaining things, while Lily pulled the child off the street.  
  
“Look, um...-” She noticed him rubbing at his eyes, squinting at her. Oh, right – some magic about their costumes made it so people couldn't see their faces. “I'm Lady Lily. What's your name?”  
  
The kid tightened his cape and nodded, hands at his sides.  
  
“I'm Captain Spirit,” he announced, deepening his voice.  
  
Lily giggled a bit at this, smiling. A hero wannabe, huh? His accent, though...-  
  
“You're not from around here, are you, Mr. Spirit?”  
  
“It's _Captain._ And no. I'm-...I, uh, am on a mission to explore for new allies. We need all the help we can to take down the mastermind Mantroid.”  
  
“Oh, um....Mantroid, is it?” Lily nodded seriously. “I think I've...heard of him before.”  
  
“Really?” the kid checked, his 'hero' act fizzling into suspicion.  
  
“W-well, Lady _Lily_ has heard of him.” She winked. Then wondered if he could even tell. But based on the way his lips went agape, his eyes narrowed, and he nodded back, she sensed he could. “He's quite...a bad... _egg._ Isn't he?”  
  
“Um, well, he's more of a...force of negative energy that...-”  
  
“So!” Dame Daffodil pounced upon them, startling them both. “Does this kiddo wanna join the team?” she teased with a sly-eyed grin.  
  
“Oh, no, Ma'am,” Captain Spirit insisted with his deepened voice, crossing his arms over his measly but puffed chest. “I already have a team of my own. But I _am_ looking for _allies_ to join our cause against the killer Mantroid and his-”  
“Hey, who's the kid?”  
  
Some of the gathering passersby were getting eager about their, er, new acquaintance.  
  
“Uh, actually, _yea_ ,” said Daffodil, “what's your name, buddy? Where's your parents?”  
  
“I'm Captain Spirit, fellow crime-fighter. My, um-...W-well, I...-”  
  
Lily gently placed a hand on the kid's frail shoulder.  
  
“It's all right,” she gently assured. “You can trust us with your secret identity, and we can help you find your family.”  
  
“Yea, we're real super heroes,” Daffodil said cheerfully. “We know how to keep a secret.”  
  
“Hey, _I_ am a _real_ super hero, too,” the child claimed, shrugging out of Alesea's grasp. “I helped you beat those monsters, remember?”  
  
Aaaand then Alesea suddenly remembered – that _strange_ stuff that had happened, which had no accounted explanation.  
  
“Whoa, wait,” said Daffodil, leaning over Lily, who was bent over toward the kid. “You serious?” She whispered at Lily, “Is he serious?”  
  
The police cars had shown up and were surveying the damage – minimal, compared to what _could_ have happened. A car crash in the middle of the intersection from when the monster had first attacked, and Daffodil had escorted the drivers – safe, thankfully. Other cars had piled up, and it wasn't the busiest road. A damaged street sign, another one bent over, and some potholes. So, not as bad as it could've been. But, still...  
  
“Time to go,” Lily decided, nudging Daffodil off her. Her partner slipped off her shoulder, rolling sideways and nimbly skidding onto her feet. “Let's get you back to your family, Mr. Spirit.”  
  
“It's _Captain._ Not Mister.”  
  
“Right! Sorry.”  
  
“Are your folks nearby?” Daffodil asked, surveying the crowd and waving to a police officer.  
  
“Uh, no, they...-” The boy's were quivering a bit at this question, which had Alesea worried. “My... _grandparents_ are...probably still at the hotel, but...-”  
  
“Do you know the way there?” Lily asked.  
  
The child nodded with hesitation.  
  
“Off we go, then,” Daffodil declared, scooping the boy up in one arm and tucking him over her shoulder.  
  
“ _Wah-!”_ he was appropriately surprised.  
  
There were some startled sounds from the small crowd that had gathered at the intersection.  
  
“This-...This missing boy was separated from his family!” Lady Lily assured with a bashfully courteous wave, raising her voice at the lot. “We're...escorting him home!”  
  
“Definitely not kidnapping!” Daffodil added, bounding off with the child in tow.  
  
  
~~~  
  
  
Having gotten themselves far enough away from the little monster incident back there, Daffodil and Lily stopped between a deli shop and a liquor store – a cozy little alleyway would offer enough cover for them to sort this all out.  
  
“All right, I think we should be good here,” Lily advised.  
  
Daffodil nodded, setting the boy down – he groaned and grumbled a bit, straightening his cardboard armor, shuffling his hair a bit, and adjusting his cape.  
  
“You OK?” Daffodil checked.  
  
He nodded, but definitely appeared to be perturbed.  
  
“Why were you hiding?” Lily asked. “I mean, why aren't you with your family?”  
  
Daffodil excitedly squealed, “And was that _you_ who did the cool, like, levitation-y thing?”  
  
He raised a brow at Daffodil, who was looked quite bright-eyed and eager.  
  
“It's all right,” said Lily, deactivating her ring. Her magical appearance flashed away, revealing her everyday form – currently dressed in khaki shorts and a white tanktop. With a wry smile at the boy's shocked expression, she told him, “See? We know what it's like to have to keep these sorts of things a secret...”  
  
“Whoa,” the child murmured. “How do I get _my_ superhero costume to do _that_ ?”  
  
“ _Well_ !” spouted Daffodil, thrusting up a proud finger. “First of all, you've gotta-”  
“Charo...Can we maybe...take this one step at a time?”  
  
“Oh. What?”  
  
Lily just tilted her head and curved her brows, gesturing toward her attire.  
  
“ _Ah._ ” Daffodil reverted to her chipper Charo self, wearing baggy sports shorts with brightly colored t-shirt that looked like a bi-product of a 90's commercial.

 

“Wow,” sighed the child, clearly envious at their transformations. So, whatever power he had...it wasn't quite the same as theirs, was it? How had he seemed so nonplussed by their abilities before, yet suddenly so surprised at their magical outfits?

  
“My name – my _real_ name – is Alesea.” She extended her hand downward, and he took it, star-eyed. “And this is Charo.”  
  
Charo, naturally, leaned against the brick wall with her arms crossed, trying to look all suave. She slipped a little, the wall having been further back than she'd thought.  
  
“We can totally keep the whole 'secret identity' thing a...secret,” Charo insisted, nodding as she undid and redid her spiky little ponytail. “We've been doing this stuff ourselves for a while.”  
  
“So,” said Alesea. “What's your name?”  
  
The boy swallowed nervously, evidently embarrassed by his hand-made costume. Aw, poor little guy, that wasn't...why they'd...-  
  
“Those are fancy names,” he mumbled, shrugging. “I'm just...Chris.”  
  
“Chris is still a nice name,” Charo tried to placate. “A-and I mean, Captain Spirit? _Wow,_ you, um, you've got us beat with that superhero name, huh? Way cooler than...erh...-” She shrugged, trailing off.  
  
“So, Chris,” Alesea began slowly. “You saw us using...um, _abilities._ Do you really have something like that, yourself?”  
  
Chris nodded, his bout of bashfulness giving way to a sudden excitement. He gave Charo a determined look.  
  
“It's my turn to pick _you_ up,” he said with a mischievous little chuckle.  
  
“ _Eh?_ ” Charo said, her expression wavering as the boy stuck his palm out toward her. “ _Wahhp-!_ ” Charo squeaked as she slipped backward, drifting slowly up in the air. She began to giggle, watching a crushed beer can and a few pebbles start to float up beside her. She thrust out her fists, tucking her legs in and trying to spin around, but was realigned upward.  
  
Alesea studied the boy's form as he kept this up for a moment. He looked intently focused, his hand trembling, like he was wrestling with an unseen force.  
  
“Our lad here's got a _juicy_ magic ability~” Charo snickered, trying to sway herself around. She tapped at the hovering beer can, and it moved, but wobbled back into the space it had occupied. “Like, OJ with _pulp_ juicy!”  
  
Alesea burst into a snort-giggle, covering up her face to stifle her own aroused laughter. Charo had to stop being so adorably weird in public, it was rather distracting...  
  
Charo stretched out her legs, downward, and slammed her fists on her hips. Chris let her drop, and she landed, flat-footed, with a joking pride about her. This dissipated into some giggles.  
  
Chris, however, while smiling at first, began to cough and sputter some. Alesea and Charo practically swarmed the lad with concern. His frail hand shooing them off didn't stop Alesea from patting his back. The coughs worsened momentarily before they cleared up.  
  
“Whoa,” Charo winced he recovered. “That, um-...All that juice means you've gotta squeeze some oranges...huh?”  
  
“...What?” Chris groaned, still fuzzy-headed.  
  
“Looks like you're still learning how to use your abilities,” Alesea sympathized. She rubbed his back a bit more until he seemed to level out. He nodded in reply to her observation, and she explained, “Well, don't worry. So are we.” She accented her words with an encouraging smile.  
  
“Practice makes better,” Charo assured.  
  
Chris retorted, “Isn't it...practice makes perfect?”  
  
“Huh?” Charo's eyes slid upward as she tapped at her chin. “Sure, people _say_ that, but...-”  
  
“Just...-” Alesea's smile withered nervously. “-...don't overexert yourself, Chris.”  
  
“I don't...know what that word means,” Chris admitted with a shrug.  
  
“Oh, um...-” Alesea's lips pouted out uncertainly. Maybe she was being a little too intimidating with how she spoke?  
  
Charo tagged in for this one.  
  
“You don't wanna push yourself so hard, buddy.” She ruffled his hair a little and he grunted a laugh, taking a step back. “Don't want you to choke on all that...superpower pulp.”  
  
“I don't like pulp in my orange juice, anyway,” Chris declared.  
  
“Smooth juicin' from here on out, then,” decided Charo, smacking one palm against the other arm's flexing bicep.  
  
Alesea shot her partner a bemused look, smirking. What was she going to do with this dorky Dame?  
  
“Anyway,” Alesea sighed out, shaking off her warm fuzzies. “How did you get this power, Chris?”  
Chris shrugged.  
  
“It just...happened one day. I fell, but...-” He stared down at his extended hands, flexing his fingers in, then out. “Then I...caught myself.”  
  
“No magical transformation, huh?” pondered Charo. “Did you maybe, like, _feel_ the power coming from...something you're wearing?”  
  
“Oh, w-well-” He fluttered his cape. “-Captain Spirit's cape boosts his powers, but...-”  
  
“You can still do this without the cape,” Alesea noted, to which he nodded.

Alesea and Charo shrugged at one another. Strange. Whatever abilities this boy had, it sure wasn't related to their own. Then again, he definitely wasn't from their neck of the woods, so perhaps that was hardly a surprise.  
  
“Actually,” Alesea began, leading the trio out onto the street and out of the alleyway. “Where are you _from,_ Chris? How did you end up out here?”  
  
“Yea,” Charo chimed in, “Are you lost?”  
  
“Maybe a _little_ lost,” Chris mumbled with a shrug. “I'm from America.”  
  
“Ah, wondered about that,” said Charo. “This is, um, a _long_ way from there...”  
  
“Ha, yea, the airplane ride was _super_ long,” Chris sighed. “My grandparents fell asleep for most of it so I got _really_ bored. I watched, like, three movies. And I'd already _seen_ two of them.”  
  
Alesea and Charo smirked at each other over the boy's shoulders as they reached a street corner.  
  
“Is this the way back to your family?” Alesea checked.  
  
“Uh...-” Chris paused, surveying the street signs. “Actually...I'm not sure.”  
  
Oooh, boy.  
  
The child sighed deeply, and he wobbled a little with a yawn, then a cough.  
  
“You don't look like you're feeling so well, there,” Charo muttered warily. “How about-...Well, my place isn't far from here, why don't we get you there-” Charo exchanged looks with Alesea, who nodded primly in approval. “-um, get you something to drink, let you, ya know, have a sit, and...we can help you figure out what's going on?”  
  
If worse came to worse, they could ring the authorities, but given the child's predicament, the idea of putting him in police care was concerning. Who knew what could happen if they discovered what he was capable of? And some paint on his face wasn't going to work the way their magic did.  
  
“Sounds...guh...-” Chris' form slipped over to one side, and Charo caught him fretfully. He snapped awake, stumbling back upright and rubbing at his eyes.  
  
“I think that's as good idea as any right now,” Alesea agreed with her partner's notion.  
  
~~~  
  
Alesea could feel her face pale at his expression, stoic and deadpan, staring down at the young boy napping on his lounge. He took a quiet, judgmental sip of his canned coffee.  
  
“And you... _found_ him?” Sel dryly posed.  
  
“Y-yes, exactly,” Alesea mumbled. She took her own sip of iced coffee from her own can, trying to mask her embarrassment. “There was-...Well, we were out hiking, and Charo had a, um, tumble, and...-”  
“Is _that_ what happened to you?” Anselmo suddenly balked, nearly choking on his coffee.  
  
He thrust a finger at Charo, who had just come out of the loo, her legs now plastered with bandages.  
  
Sel grumbled out, “What kind of _hiking_ spot around here was so rough where _that_ could've happened?”  
  
Charo shrugged, teeth grit. “Dunno, but I'm _fine._ Really.”  
  
“How do you two _keep_ ...-?!” Sel's face looked like a kettle ready to explode for a second, there.  
“That's not important right now,” Alesea interjected, sticking her more confident foot forward. “Is it?” she retorted, gesturing toward the tuckered out child. “I mean, maybe it's a _good_ thing we wandered outside of our...normal...hiking route, or else this poor boy might've...passed out all on his _own_ out there.”  
  
Charo lifted her brows, stuck her hands out toward Alesea, and nodded at her brother.  
  
His frustration fizzled out and he groaned audibly, slurping more of his coffee.  
  
“You two just _have_ to try playing the hero, don't you?” Anselmo took a deep breath and fluttered his lips against the edge of his coffee can.  
  
Alesea and Charo exchanged wary smiles at his remark.  
  
“All right, so.” Sel wandered off to the kitchen, and the pair of partners followed him. Sel scooted his chair out a bit, crossing one leg over the other. He perused the contents Charo had scooped out of the boy's pockets when they'd de-armored him for his nap.  
  
A library card.  
  
“Chris...Eriksen, huh? Beaver Creek?” Anselmo noted the town logo displayed on the card. “Where's this boy from?”  
  
“America,” Charo replied with a shrug.  
  
“It sounded like he's here visiting with his family,” Alesea pointed out. “He mentioned his grandparents at a hotel nearby.”  
  
Anselmo slid another card around on the table, which had a big triangle near the top.  
  
“Must be a keycard for their room,” he observed. “ _Mm_ ,” he hummed through a sip of coffee. _“Aah._ I recognize this place.” He passed it to Charo. “You should look up their number, give them a call.”  
  
Charo gawked at the card, a bit baffled at first, but then nodded and headed off for her bedroom.  
  
As Charo waddled off to her task, Alesea didn't know what to do with herself, hovering in the kitchen's doorway. She drummed her fingernails against the half-empty coffee can she was slowly working through. Then she felt Anselmo's critical gaze land on her.  
  
He sipped quietly, his dead eyes laser-firing a sting of disappointment at her.  
  
She felt her face turning pink with some shame and sipped in defense.  
  
“She was-”  
“How did-”  
  
They both had started to murmur at each other at once, keeping their voices down. Alesea pushing loose hair behind her ears, nodding complacently at Sel to let him go first.  
  
“How could you let her take a tumble like that?”  
  
“It was...-! She was...-! That... _boy,_ we got...distracted – um, alarmed – he was in danger, and Charo, she-”  
“In _danger_ ?”  
_Nnnnnnn maybe that made it sound worse...!  
_ “Oh, _what?_ N-not, like, _danger_ danger, I mean, he was...all by himself, and he could've...fallen, and so-”  
“So _Charo_ fell instead? To prevent _him_ from falling.”  
“S-Something like that, I...-”  
  
Anselmo took a deep breath, squinting his eyes shut and pinching the bridge of his nostrils.

 

“All right. That's enough.” Anselmo slurped the last of his coffee and planted the empty can on the table. “I don't know why you're lying to me. But I'm sure it must be to protect someone over _something_ .”  
  
Alesea twitched a nervous shrug through her grimaced smile.  
  
“I guess at the end of the day, I'd rather my sister get some bug bites and scratches than let a lost child have a _heat_ stroke. So...you did good.”  
  
_“Mm...-!”_ Alesea grunted her gratitude through her coffee can.

 

Ansemlo breathed out tiredly as he rose from the table, grabbed the can and rinsing it in the sink.  
  
“Just wish you two would stop trying to take on these kinds of things, especially with...this _monster_ business going on.” He flicked water from his fingertips and dunked the can into the recycling bin. “You could've called the cops or something, instead of...-” He warily flicked his wrist toward the lounge room.  
  
“We panicked,” Alesea confessed, clutching her can daintily with both hands, almost like a shield before her. “He was...over-excited about...finding someone who was...willing to help, and he had a dizzy spell – passed out. And we weren't...sure what else to...-” She swallowed a gulp of cold coffee and shook her head with shrug.  
  
Her stomach felt weird from the sensation of, well, _lying_ to Sel. Again. This feeling was getting old, and fast. But what other choice did she have?  
  
Charo emerged from her room, still on her phone.  
  
“Yup!...Mm-hmn...Thanks.” She let loose a raspberry sigh as she ended the call. “Why'd you make _me_ call them? Talking to random people on the phone is _terrible._ Mean Momo.”

  
As she grouchily pouted her way into the kitchen, she put her phone into her pocket as Anselmo gave her a pat on the head.  
  
“You brought him _here_ ,” Sel pointed out, heading toward the cupboard. “That makes you his host. And a good host would make those kinds of arrangements for their guest.”  
  
Alesea squirmed her way over and gave Charo a gentle rub on the back, complimented by a warm little smile, which she received back in turn.  
  
“Well?” Sel pondered, digging into the cupboard. “What did they say at the hotel?”  
  
“Oh, erh,” Charo scratched at the tip of her nose. “Sounds like his grandparents are the ones he's traveling with, they'd fallen asleep. Guess they'll be on their way to pick him up soon.”  
  
“Ah, good,” said Alesea, relieved to hear it.  
  
“In the meantime,” decided Sel, “we should probably give him something to eat, if he's been out out there in this heat. Now, I mean, it's been a while since I was _his_ age,” Sel pointed out, “but I figure...-” He flashed them an unopened package of Hobknobs. “-...milk and biscuits, that's gotta be one way to pick up a boy's spirits, right?”  
  
“ _Chh, 'spirits,'”_ Charo snickered, elbowing Alesea. She couldn't help but giggle as another warm tingle swept up her neck.  
  
“What?” Sel prodded, slightly irate at their mocking.  
  
“It's just cute,” Alesea dismissed, nodding as she drank the last of her coffee. “I think it's a brilliant idea.”  
  
“I'll get the milk,” Charo decreed, heading off. Alesea gave her a pat on the arm to send her on her way.  
  
“I'll go wake him,” decided Alesea.  
  
Like their own little team, they went about their tasks with efficiency. Small as it was, it felt good working on the same side as Charo's brother, instead of working _around_ him.  
  
Alesea knelt down over the couch, brushed her ponytail behind her shoulder, took a deep breath, and nudged a cautious hand at the child's shoulder.  
  
He moaned and sputtered nonsense for a moment before his eyes slowly opened.  
  
“ _...nfgh...th'prncess..._ ”  
  
“Chris?” Alesea checked when his eyes closed again. “Hey. We've got a snack for you.”  
  
Chris opened his eyes again, wider this time. Alesea smiled at how adorable this kid was.  
  
_“...nnn..._ have a pretty smile,” Chris mumbled, still half-awake. Alesea felt her face light up. “Like my mom's,” Chris yawned out.  
  
Alesea chuckled through her nose, not sure if she was more embarrassed for her, or for the boy.  
  
“What?” Charo prodded, amused but confused as she entered with a glass of milk, complete with ice cubes to keep it cold.

Alesea just shook her head, smirking, and gave her befuddled partner a rub on the arm.  
  
Charo set the glass down on the coffee table, and Anselmo sighed – loudly – as he put a platter of Hobknobs down beside it.  
  
Chris seemed a bit perplexed by this new figure, but not as startled at the change of scenery as one might expect.  
  
Anselmo was giving Charo a glare. She beamed innocently at her brother as she scooted a coaster beneath the glass of milk, appeasing him.  
  
Chris sat up, rubbing at his face some more. He scratched at his chest, and _then_ the surprise kicked in.  
  
“Wh-? Where's my...-?”  
  
“Your gear is over there, Captain Spirit,” Charo quelled, nodding toward the front door.  
  
The boy noted his cape and cardboard armor sitting on the floor by everyone's shoes and, after a moment, nodded his contentedness about the matter.  
  
“He's a superhero,” Charo said to her brother, waggling her brows and nudging him with the back of her wrist. _Jeez, Charo, do you really need to...-??  
  
_ “Uh- _huh_ ,” Anselmo said dully. “Must be getting swept up in all that hype over those...'heroes'-” He air-quoted. _EXCUSE HIM??_ “-that the news is obsessed about.”  
  
Chris cleared his throat, “ _Mmph,_ I...used up my energy fighting off a monster attack.” He coughed drylu – ow, hopefully he was OK? “It's time to recharge...” He took a swig of ice-cold milk, humming pleasantly. “I can _feee~eeeel_ the power.”  
  
Alesea had to contain another snort-giggle from escaping.  
  
“Heh.” Even Anselmo seemed a bit charmed, which was saying something. “Well, uh, every superhero needs to keep their strength up. We, uh, got you some Hobnobs, here, so...have at it.”  
  
Chris – well, Captain Spirit – frowned at this. Breaking character, he asked, “What's a _hobnob?_ ”  
  
Charo gasped with shock at this.  
  
“ _No._ You _eat_ those,” she commanded, jabbing a finger out. “You take one of those, and you stick it in your face-mouth-place, and you bite at it, and you eat it, and it is w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l...!”  
  
The kid seemed taken aback at this.  
  
“I-...I don't...-”  
  
“Like this!” Charo grabbed a biscuit and bit into it. “One nibble and your hob _nobbled_ ,” Charo quoted, not being dignified with a reaction.  
  
“I think you're scaring him,” Anselmo grumbled, clutching his sister by the skull to get her hyperactivity to settle down a peg.  
  
“They're just biscuits,” Alesea explained gently to Chris. “Go on, try one.”  
  
“Biscuits...?” He looked skeptical. He carefully picked one up, studying it. “Looks like a cookie.”  
  
“Oh, right,” Alesea blurted sheepishly. “American...”  
  
Through mouth full of Hobnob, Charo asked, “ _Whuff's uh googi emmeeweh?_ ”  
  
Chris took a bite, seemed to approve, and then devoured the rest of the thing, glugging some milk along with it.  
  
A gentle rumble emitted from Charo's hip – her mouth still chewing at a Hobnob, she pulled out her cell phone.  
  
Swallowing and flinching at the under-chewed biscuit going down her throat, Charo greeted, “Hello?” She glanced at Chris, who was going to town on his snack. “ _Ah,_ yes! That was me. We-...Uh-huh. Yea, he's fine.” She nodded down at the boy, and then glanced at Alesea, who nibbled on a Hobnob herself, smiling back. “ _Directions? Erh-..._ I'm...-” She grimaced, tugging at Sel's sleeve. “Lehhhht me pass you to my brother, he can-... _Ahhh,_ yea,” she said through a sheepish laugh. “Juh-...Yea, just a...-” Her eyes popped open wide, a flash of impatience as she handed her phone to Anselmo, who gave her a stern look before taking it.  
  
“ _What_ are these called?” Chris asked, breaking one of the biscuits in half. “Hobgoblins?”  
  
“Oh, uh-”  
“Hello, yes? This is Anselmo.”  
“They're _good_ ,” Chris blurted.  
“Mm,” Alesea lifted a finger toward him.  
“I'm her older brother. He's-”  
Chris rammed the two Hobnob halves against each other, growling and crying as he played.  
“... _Mm._ ” Anselmo frowned briefly, then began to walk off. “He's safe. Just...having a snack, he-...Oh, well, it...sounded as if he could've been de _hydrated,_ but-...Wait, from _what_ hotel?”  
  
“- _rreeEEOWW,_ **ksshhh-ksshhh,** _shuh-_ _ **WING~**_ ”  
Hoo. Kid was maybe having a bit of a sugar rush, or something?  
  
Charo grinned, grabbing a Hobnob and thrusting it toward Chris' dualing makeshift toys. She began to make weird little hissing noises – evocative of the kinds of black beasts they had been contending with.  
  
Chris rotated his pieces to face Charo's encroaching 'monster.'  
  
“ _ahhh watch out! it's a mega spike spider!_ It's heading right for us, I don't know if I can hold it off! _captain spirit captain spirit! please lend us your power!_ ” He set down the pieces, sticking out his hand. “ **Don't worry, Captain Spirit will protect you from far away.** _**Hnnnnnn**_ **-** ”  
“O-OK, now,” Alesea chimed in warily, reaching out a hand to Chris's arm. “Just...don't... _really_ use-”  
“I'm just playing,” Chris matter-of-factly advised. He nodded his head with raised brows off toward where Anselmo had gone, adding in a whisper, “There's still a _civilian_ around...”  
  
Alesea smiled with bemusement, receiving a smirk from Charo.  
  
“ **Hnnnn-** ”

Charo began to wobble the biscuit around, slowly pushing it toward Chris' hand. She squealed and hissed angrily, making an adorably authentic face to match.  
  
“It's...so strong,” Chris grunted. “It's taking...all my power...just to-... _urgh_ ...-keep it from attacking...!” He scooped up his two biscuit halves suddenly, while still holding out his hand. “ _thank you thank you let's get_ _**outta** _ _here!_ ” He waddled them off, tucking them behind his milk glass. He then drank a sip of milk while the thought occurred to him.  
  
“Now what?” Charo asked quietly, still thrashing her biscuit around. “You can't just...let it go free, can you?”  
  
“Uh...-” Chris seemed taken aback by the question. And Alesea was a bit alarmed at that being brought up again.  
  
“It'll _hurt_ people,” Charo pointed out, squeezing in some more little monster growls. “So, what'll you do?”  
  
“I...erh...-” Chris scratched an itched on his nose, flustered.  
  
“Uh-oh,” Charo gasped, jerking the Hobnob about. “It's... _breaking free...!_ ”  
  
“ **Hnnnn-”** Chris refocused his hand at it.  
  
“You can't keep this up forever,” Charo whispered in an eerie, villainous voice. “Sooner or later, you'll slip up...”  
  
“I-...I can _throw_ it into space,” Chris theorized. “It can't hurt anyone up there!”  
  
“ _Can_ you throw it into space?” Charo growled with her cracking voice, brows narrowed. “I've never seen Captain Spirit wield such power. You're _bluffing._ ”  
  
“I...could...put it in the _ocean_ .”  
  
“ _haha,_ yessss, throw it in the sea~ It will make babies and consume the innocent animals!”  
“ _Charo_ ,” Alesea snipped, giving her a sharp but gentle slap with the back of her wrist. She shrugged defensively.  
  
“If you can't destroy a _monster_ ,” Charo quietly rumbled, “how can you protect a _person_ from it?”  
  
“Heroes can't _kill_ ,” Chris huffed. “I thought you were a hero, how come you're doing this?”  
  
Charo sighed, fluttering her lips and setting the biscuit back onto the plate. _Agh, Charo...your fingers have been all over that...  
  
_ “Sorry,” Charo mumbled, shedding her facade. “It's just...being a hero, sometimes that means you can't...just...do the nice always.”  
  
“Then what's the _point_ ?” Chris raised.  
  
Charo gawked back at him.  
  
“It-...You're _helping_ people,” she said. “Protecting them.”  
  
“But,” Alesea intervened, “what if there's another way to do it?”  
  
“Like _what_ ?” Charo puffed, her patience slipping a little at the implication.  
  
“What if I _trap_ it?” Chris decided. “Keep it in, like, a monster cage. That way, we can get...a scientist to do research on it.”  
  
Alesea smiled at the notion. She wasn't so sure that would work in their particular case. But it was the thought that she got behind.  
  
“Mmmm,” Charo hummed, shrugging uncertainly. “That's...maybe harder to do than to say.”  
  
“Maybe you could...tame it?” Chris pondered, taking one of his biscuit halves from before and dipping it into his milk – a ways down – before eating it. “Like a stray dog?” he said through a cheekful of biscuit.  
  
Charo and Alesea traded thoughtful looks of consideration, neither sure of what that would entail, much less where they'd keep the things.  
  
“Do _you_ want to keep a monster at your house?” Charo asked him. “Also – wouldn't it give away your secret identity? _Also,_ what if those monsters keep coming all the time? Where do you _put_ them all?”  
  
“ _Hm._ ” Chris crossed his arms, swallowed his morsel, and rubbed his chin blatantly. “Well, where do the monsters _come_ from?”  
  
Alesea and Charo both paused at this.  
  
They didn't _know._  
  
“Uh... _up?_ ” Alesea muttered, pointing a finger skyward, her face wrinkling with dissatisfaction at the blindness of their situation. “They fall from the sky.”  
  
“ _Whoa_ , like aliens?” Chris said quietly, in awe.  
  
Charo and Alesea gave each other bug-eyed shrugs. For all _they_ knew...-  
  
“Maybe you can't throw them back up to space,” Chris admitted. “But if they got here, there's gotta be a way to go back where they came.”  
  
“Possibly,” Alesea decided. “Or at least a way to figure out what they really _are,_ ” she said to Charo, rubbing her partner on the shoulder. “It sounds like a better idea than trying to...keep _this_ up, anyway.”  
  
Charo took a deep breath, her glazed-over eyes wandering off as an ashamed pout slipped over her face.  
  
Alesea squeezed her hand down, rubbing her thumb against Charo.  
  
“These are the kinds of complicated messes heroes get themselves into,” she said. She glanced to Chris and added, “And it takes a brave person to try to do something about it, even if they might do it in a different way.” She let her forehead press itself against the side of Charo's head. “Being a hero means making some mistakes along the way, but as long as you're keeping people safe...-” She sighed into Charo's neck. “-...you're still doing something important. And courageous.”  
  
Charo leaned back into Alesea, their skulls pressing together gently for a moment.  
  
“I'm glad _I_ don't have to fight monsters like you do,” Chris decided, grabbing the biscuit that Charo had placed down. **And putting it IN HIS MOUTH** _Aughh, Chris, Charo put her fingers ALL OVER THAT._ “It's...pretty scary.” _  
  
_ “Ah, well, every hero needs someone to help watch their back,” Charo replied, tapping Alesea's back with her chubby palm and scratching a little. “It's _less_ scary that way,” she said, looking at her partner with a pink-cheeked grin.  
  
“A _lot_ less scary,” Alesea agreed. “But... _still_ scary.”  
  
Anselmo entered the room, thumbing the front door with the phone still to her ear.  
  
“Chris?”  
  
“Yea?”  
  
“I think your grandparents are here to pick _-...Huh?_ ” He side-eyed Charo's phone. “Yes, he's right-...Uh-huh.”  
  
“Oh.” Chris had a bit of a mopey look to him. Looking up to Charo and Alesea, he assumed, “Guess I should probably go, then, huh?”  
  
“You've got people waiting on you,” said Charo. “Gotta keep them safe, too, right?”  
  
“Keep them safe from driving on the wrong side of the _road_ ,” Anselmo muttered under his breath, handing Charo's phone back to her. Running his hand through his hair, he sighed. “Anyway. Uh...So, Captain Strange-”  
“Spirit.”  
“Captain... _Spirit._ Next time you've got monsters to fight, uh...make sure to check in with your family first, all right?”  
“Roger.” Chris bounded up from the couch and give Sel a salute.  
  
He grabbed another Hobnob, stuffing it into his face, and guzzling down the last of the milk. Heh.  
  
“Gotta stayed fueled,” Charo encouraged, ruffling his hair roughly as he wiped a milk mustache from his lip. “Make sure you don't, ya know, drain your Spirit Batteries when you fight evil.”  
  
“Yea,” Chris agreed, looking up at Charo with an admiring smirk.  
  
As he rounded the table and passed by Alesea, she gave him a pat on the shoulder.  
  
She leaned down and said to him with a cautious tone, “I think you're right, that heroes should try to not hurt anyone – even monsters. Just remember that sometimes...people _are_ the monsters.”  
  
“So...” Chris gave her a thoughtful nod with a gleam in his eye that she very much approved of. “That means it's _super_ important to try to save them. Those people, I mean.”  
  
Alesea beamed down at him and nodded emphatically. She escorted him to Charo's front door. He gathered his armor and stuck it on. A car beeped from outside.  
  
Alesea concluded, “I'm sure you'll figure that stuff out as you go, um, Captain Spirit. Even the most super of heroes have to figure out these kinds of things. Whatever you do, I just hope you can learn to be whatever kind of hero _you_ need to be.”  
  
“You've _definitely_ got the stuff to be **super** ~” Charo assured, helping tighten his cape on and nudging him along out the door. Heading to the driveway with him at her side, Charo pumped up a fist. “When you get back home, you've gotta find your own way to be someone's hero!”

 


End file.
